Dec 29, 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas: mellow and relaxing - just our little clan. We enjoyed a stress-free Christmas Eve day (a quick trip to Walmart for a handful of things that morning and then we just hung around for the rest of the day). We had turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and peas for dinner, with Sparkling Apple Cider. We haven't established a firm Christmas Eve food tradition yet (we heard about a couple of people who do homemade pizza on Christmas Eve, which peaked our interest a little.... maybe we'll try that next year). We talked about what Christmas really means as we sat around the dinner table. That evening we had a Family Home Evening where we read the scripture from our Christmas chain (our chain this year included a scripture or a story from the Friend or a song each night, which has been a nice way to incorporate the true meaning throughout the entire month). We prayed and then watched "Muppet Christmas Carol." The kids got treats ready for Santa and then headed to bed. We got going the next morning at around 7 AM. One of the best parts of Christmas is being a parent and seeing the look on your kids' faces on Christmas morning - really, it's magical. We opened presents: the last presents were the new quads we got (one was in the garage and the other was wrapped up in the front room). Austy spent most of the morning hanging out in a big box of packing peanuts - pure entertainment! Dad watched as the kids took turns riding the little quad later that day. The kids played and played with their new loot. Tom and Carolyn and Rachael and Great Grammy Dick came over that afternoon for dinner: ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls, roasted vegetables, orange salad and pie for dessert. It was a perfect kind of day. Megan got coloring books and Eye Spy (style) books, ponies, scarf, makeup set, whistle and some other little things.

Dec 1, 2012

This year we wanted to get out of dodge for Thanksgiving....but we didn't really want to drive all that far, so we coordinated a Thanksgiving holiday in Heber, AZ with Grandpa and Grandma and Great Grammy Dick. We stayed at their friends, the Moore's, cabin. It was great! We had a tasty Thanksgiving dinner (we made most of it before we left and carried it with us: I made homemade sausage and roasted mushroom stuffing, sweet potatoes, raspberry pretzel jello, cranberry sauce, two kinds of cheese balls and pumpkin pie. We also had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, peas and homemade apple pie. Delish. We spent the rest of the weekend watching movies, playing games (the kids were introduced to the game, Sorry, and they loved it), riding quads, playing outside, doing a little exploring and hiking, crocheting (a new skill I learned from Sean's Mom while we were there). We also had a bonfire in the yard and roasted hotdogs and made smores. Sean and Grandpa took the kids fishing in a fishing boat. They came home with 5 fish: Nathan even boasted about catching one (it did get caught on his hook, although Sean reeled it in). We went to church on Sunday morning, ate homemade lasagna that Grammy Dick made and then packed it up and headed home. It was a very relaxing and fun weekend.

Nov 23, 2012

We finally got some family pictures taken by a friend of ours. We went up to Sandia Peak one afternoon and she shot away.

Nov 10, 2012

Mega Moo is 6. Her birthday landed on Election Day. The good news is that schools had the day off. I didn’t realize this until about 5 days earlier. I thought maybe I would try and get a party together for her actual day (she really wanted a birthday party with friends this year). I asked around and everyone was available. So, we had 7 little girls over and had a fun party. The girls made wands, we played musical carpets (for Aladdin) and pin the lips on the frog (they put lipstick on with q-tips and kissed a paper) (for Princess and the Frog) and Hot Poison Apple (for Snow White – like Hot potato, but we used an apple). We had a little lunch: star shaped ham and cheese sandwiches or cream cheese and jam sandwiches, fruit skewers, corn chips, vegetables and raspberry lemondade. Megan opened presents and LOVED them all. Then we had cake and ice cream. Then the girls played with the news toys and just had fun together. A few of the girls stayed later and Megan had fun with them. When Dad got home she opened up her family presents: a new coat, Princess games, a new backpack, a little doll, etc. She chose hot dogs and corn for her dinner, so that’s what we had: fast and easy. I think she was pretty happy with her day. And an added bonus was that she lost her first tooth later that afternoon. She was pretty thrilled the next afternoon when she realized the Tooth Fairy had left her a silver dollar under her pillow (she didn’t check in the morning because she forgot to put her envelope under her pillow – she wanted to take it to school for show-and-tell before the Tooth Fairy took it).

Nov 1, 2012

Another great Halloween holiday. This year most of the celebrating occurred on the same day, which was kind of nice. We went to the elementary school Fall Festival the weekend before (always a fun time). Then on the actual holiday the kids dressed up for school. They have a costume parade and then class parties. I took the boys and went to watch the parade and then make our rounds to the parties. T

hat night we stopped by the Beehive Home (an assisted living home) and the kids went trick-or-treating from door to door. Then we headed over to our ward party. It seemed a little smaller this year, but the kids still came away with plenty of candy. Sean made his famous chili, which got gobbled right up. He put in ALL the peppers and spices....and it was spicy, but not kill-you-dead spicy. It is delicious. He always decks the trunk real good and then passes out the candy. On our way home we stopped by a couple of houses on our street. They were thrilled to have trick-or-treaters and the kids walked away with full size candy bars and handfuls of candy. A fun time for all. I pretty much let the kids have at their candy. I've decided I like this way better. They eat and eat and eat....and in a few days the whole loot is gone. Their happy....and I'm happy that it's out of the houses sooner than later.

Oct 25, 2012

This year we decided to go to the Balloon Fiesta on a weekday morning. We got up early on Thursday morning and headed to the park. We got there just in time to get on the field, eat some breakfast burritos and start to watch the Special Shape balloons take off. There weren't as many balloons as the Mass Ascension Days, but there were a lot of fun shapes to look at. The kids wandered around collecting balloon cards. We dropped off Nathan at preschool on the way home (just as his bus was leaving for their field trip to the Air Museum) and then we got home in time for the kids to change and get to school by 10 AM (just a couple of hours late). It was a perfect morning - not too cold or windy. We were lucky we went when we did because that weekend the weather got pretty cold and wet.

Oct 3, 2012

I signed up with a friend of mine who organizes a home school group to get into the fair each year. When you go with the group you get in free. I decided to pull Caelan, Ben and Megan out of school for the day and we all spent a fun day at the fair. The day we went last year was super crowded, especially all the kids events, but this year was perfect. We had a great time: *Climbing and exploring all sorts of military vehicles (it was Military Day) *Watching the Pig races *Getting a milk shake from the dairy *Watching the White Lion show *Climbing the rock wall (Ben was a little monkey and went up twice in flip flops, Caelan also made it to the top, even when it got kind of hard for her, and Megan made it about half way) *Seeing lots of goats and sheep and pigs and cows *Going into the petting zoo and feeding the animals *Exploring the kids section, "Old McDonalds Farm" *Having fun in the "Agventure Land": corn box, riding little tractors, making coffee filter painted flowers, saddling a fake horse, making your own scarecrow, etc. *All the kids got to ride one ride (Megan, Ben and Caelan all went on the ferris wheel and Nathan rode the motorcycles). *Checked out the craft winners (the kids loved the Lego displays and a couple of the wood carvers made the kids wood owls) *Ate cotton candy and freshly made donuts - good fair food. I honestly didn't think we would last so long (I thought for sure one or more kid would have a melt down at some point), but we were there until after 4 PM and we all left happy.

Sept 9, 2012

On Saturday I ran in the Dirty Dash - a 3.5 miles mud run. The race was great - mud pits to run through and climb out of, walls to climb over, water slides, tubes to crawl through, etc. I went back later for the kids to do the Piglet Plunge (just one mile with a few of the pits and obstacles). Ben loved it. Megan was totally fascinated and slightly obsessed with picking the dried mud off, and Nathan was pretty much over it after the second mud pit (it took some convincing and carrying to get him through it...HE HE HE). Megan was pretty good about powering through although by about 2/3 of the way through she kept asking me if we were almost done.

Good times.

Sept 3, 2012

We had a great summer trip in July/August.We were gone 18 days, we traveled through 10 states, we attended 3 family reunions and we traveled almost 4,000 miles (and our van made it without a problem the whole way). Here are some of the highlights of the trip: *Camping at Carlsbad State Beach - we were literally right above the shore and we could hear the waves crashing at night. We stayed here during the Sorensen Family Reunion. We spent an entire day at the beach. Of the 7 hours we were at the beach, Caelan was in the water for 6 of them (she is our little fish). Sean went out in the water, intending to just wade for a bit, but a wave caught him and took him down. Unfortunately he was wearing his glasses, which were taken right off with the wave. Luckily we found an Optometrist office that gave us a trial pair to take for free. We enjoyed another day at the park visiting, playing volleyball, eating yummy food etc. *Caelan made friends with a bunch of my cousins' daughters, which was fun to watch. Nathan also made a friend, Brinlee. They played and played together. One day she fell and got hurt and Nathan put his arm around her and walked her to her dad (it was so cute). I sent my cousin a message after we left the reunion telling her how fun it was to watch those two little ones play together. She wrote back saying that Brinlee had been telling her that Nathan is now her boyfriend. HA! Love it. *We hit up Los Hermanos on our way from southern CA up to Northern ID, which is always tasty (and brings back fun memories). *The trailer story (but that deserves a post all on it's own) *Camping at Farragut State Park (about 20 miles outside Cour d'Alene, ID). It was beautiful. We played at the lake, went boating, had campfires, took a day trip to a mountain resort, found a delicious ice cream parlor and got homemade ice cream cones and had a fun time visiting. *We made the next trip to the final reunion in Boise, ID. For this reunion we stayed in an empty house with some mattresses for beds. *For this reunion, the Taylor Reunion, we had a couple of swimming pool parties, we watched "How To Train Your Dragon" outside, and I actually got to watch a little bit of the Olympics....finally. *We spent one day floating along the Boise river. There were only three decent drops and Grandpa Sorensen fell right out on the first one, which gave us all a good laugh. *We spent one night camping at a Reservoir about 30 minutes away. The grassy campground was right on the lake, and the water was super shallow so the kids spent lots of time way out in the water. We boated and jumped off the dock and made smores and had a fun little overnighter. *I met Corbin in Eagle Mountain, UT at Charity's house and we caravanned together back home to New Mexico. Fun, Fun Trip!

August 20, 2012

First Day of School - Megan started Kindergarten at Route 66 Elementary School. Her teacher is Mrs. White. The Kindergarten classes started a few days after the other grades - they did Kindergarten testing during these days. I called to make the testing appointment for Megan and I talked to Ms. Dayhoff (the other Kindergarten teacher). She said, "Your last name is Dick, right? Oh Mrs. White wants Megan in her class." Ben had Mrs. White two years ago. I chuckled thinking that Mrs. White is probably thinking she is going to get another Ben in her class...HE HE HE. Megan has been excited for start school for weeks. She walked in on her first day and found her name tag. She was sitting right next to a friend of hers from her dance class, Ruthie. Then she saw her best friend, Presley walk in the door and noticed that Presley's name tag was on the other side of her. She was elated. (That seating arrangement didn't even make it the entire first day, but it sure made the first part of the day pretty fun). She is loving school.

Aug 17, 2012

This year we made a list of some things we wanted to do during the summer, and then I kept track of things we could cross off the list (plus other fun things that we didn't put on the initial list). Here is our Summer 2012 List: *Balloon Fiesta Museum *Visit 3 new local parks *Fishing (Caelan caught her first fish....all by herself) *Nature Scavenger Hunt *Make a volcano with baking soda and vinegar *Bowling *Board Games *Make a fort *Geocaching *Splash Park *Sidewalk chalk city *Swimming and waterslide *Cheap Movies ("The Lorax" and "Mirror Mirror") *Library Story Time *Bird of Prey presentation at Tijeras Library *Water Balloons *Sprinkler on trampoline *Homemade icecream *Jambo's Amusement Park (in Phoenix) *Snow cones *Slip n' slide *Teddy Bear Picnic *Visit and tour gold mine (in Colorado) *Hike *Make kaleidoscope *Barbeque with friends *Banana splits at ice cream parlor *Mentos and Diet Coke experiment *Free lunch summer program *Sleep on trampoline *Visit the aquarium *Make rain stick *Free Slurpie Day at 7-11 *Galloping Grace Horse Ranch *Daily reading time *Visit lego store *Wii family competition *Hinkle Family Fun Center Free Friday (golfing and arcade) *Boating *Float down river *Camping *Outside movie *Garden *.....plus our big summer vacation Sounds like a pretty successful summer. Let's do it again next year.

July 15, 2012

I'm not sure how I heard about it, but at some point before summer I learned about a horse ranch that offers sessions for kids for free in the summer. I tried to sign up online, but they didn't have a date that would work for us, so I put us on the waiting list. Last week we were notified of an opening, so we went over to Rio Rancho and spent the morning at a horse ranch. It is a great place where everything is paid for by donations and fundraisers and all the workers are volunteers. The kids loved it. They got to:
*Ride horses (the highlight of the day)
*Groom a horse
*Hold baby ducklings and chickens - Megan is fearless. She just goes from one to the next picking them up. Even when one of the chickens started flapping its wings like crazy Megan let it go and then a second later was picking it right back up.
*Scoop up horse poop
*Pet goats and ponies
*Write cards to organizations that have donated goods and services
*Play in the play area which consisted of an outdoor kitchen, a saloon playhouse (with a tiny little piano inside and cowboy dress up clothes), giant tire, play trucks, playground equipment, a corn box (like a sand box, but with corn), water pump rubber duckie races and more.

I think all of the kids at one point that morning thanked me for taking them there. Good fun....and free. Can't beat that.

July 1, 2012

Megan is the second little Mom around here....to Austin anyway. She just loves to hold and kiss and feed and help him in any and every way that she can.....sometimes this means a little too much help (which makes him a little nuts at times). The other day she informed me that I don't need to take care of Austin anymore because she can do it. She said she'll change his diaper and put him to bed and all I need to do is feed him. He had just been fussy and so she decided to change his diaper and was pretty pleased with herself that she did it completely on her own. She is quite comfortable holding him, even though he is getting bigger and bigger for her. It can be nerve wracking to watch her adjust him into the proper position (little Megan picking up and adjust a 9 month old baby), but she always has a good handle on him.

July 1, 2012

We had a fun family day on Saturday. We went up to Sandia Cave - short half mile hike up to the cave and then we went exploring inside. We tried to do some geocaching along the trail but we didn't have much luck. The kids loved it (except Megan who isn't so fond of close, dark spaces). She was the only one who started to have a minor breakdown inside of the cave (she did the same thing when we tried caving in southern Utah last year). We got her calm enough that she didn't completely lose it - she waited with Daddy for a few minutes while the other kids went a little further. She was pretty happy when we decided to turn around. We all came out with a yellow film all over our clothes and skin, so we stopped at the stream at the bottom of the trail and rinsed off.

June 25, 2012

Week in the Heat
Dad took the Varsity Scouts to Moab for the first week in June. While he was gone I decided to take the kids to Grandpa and Grandma Dicks house in Arizona. We squeezed into our little Honda (which saved us probably $150 in gas) - it really wasn't too crowded at all. Aunt Jenny and her kids were there too, so all the kids had a great time playing with cousins. We did a LOT of swimming (twice every single day we were there - probably at least 15 hours of swimming). I decided not to put the kids in swim lessons this year, so I was hoping our trip to Grandma's house would help them all get a little more comfortable in the water. Megan remembered how to swim under water and also learned how to tread water and doggy paddle. She is our most hesitant child in water. She likes to swim, but she gets tired of it after a while and goes inside (while the other kids will stay out there all day long if you let them). She got pretty brave by the end of the week - trying to swim across the pool before I was even out in the water with her. She got the hang of it.
We also took a fun day trip to an indoor amusement park. It was great - small enough to be able to stand up and look around and be able to see all the kids, but big enough to have several different rides that were fun for the age of the kiddos. The very first thing the kids did was run to the little carnival coaster ride, which was actually pretty fast for an indoor ride. It's one of those rides that goes around in a circle faster and faster and faster. Megan got on and just laughed and laughed the entire time. There was a couple of other times throughout the day that I would find her over at the coaster all by herself riding it.

June 23, 2012

Caelan and Ben slept on the trampoline one night. Nathan attempted it but came inside about 30 minutes later because he was too scared (Megan was too nervous to even try it). He and Megan wanted to sleep together. I thought they had gone up to Megan's room so I went to check on them before I went to bed, but they weren't there. I glanced into the boys room and this is what I saw: